Jonathan Green

I am interested in the decisions that people make regarding the environment and, more specifically, how these relate to the distribution of conservation costs and benefits. My work at Princeton mainly focuses on the East Asian-Australasian Flyway. This flyway is vital for at least 33 shorebirds of conservation concern that depend on the intertidal zone for refueling. However, much of the flyway’s coast in the Yellow Sea and Southeast Asia is also a key economic resource for aquaculture, salt production and conversion for urban or industrial development. As a result, the area is undergoing extremely rapid conversion and will require intervention if the habitat upon which the birds rely is to be preserved. I consider the winners and losers of such conservation actions by taking both the economic costs and the benefits of land conversion into account. By doing so, we are able to evaluate the magnitude of the challenge facing shorebird conservationists and we can devise economically-plausible strategies to help avert future losses of habitat and species